indiano

Forms

indiano (feminine indiana, masculine plural indianos, feminine plural indianas)^[1]

Etymology

According to Gómez de Silva it is borrowed from Medieval Latin indianus (“of India”), formed from India with the suffix -ānus.^[2] The plural ⟨Indias⟩ was first applied to a vaguely defined region of Asia, India with the lands and islands around it; when Columbus reached the Caribbean islands in 1492, navigators and geographers took them to be part of the Indies, and the word followed the name.^[2] AMERLEX classes the American use as an americanism formed from a proper name.^[3] Spanish also has indio, the usual word for the native peoples, beside it.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

DEMel's first record is in the Libro de Alexandre (1230–1250).^[5] In the Alfonsine prose the word refers to the East: the Lapidario (1250–1279) names a stone indiana that is found in the islands of India, and the General estoria (1272–1275) tells how Queen Semiramis came to India a dar batalla alos jndianos “to give battle to the Indians”.^[6] A text of 1256 also uses the word for the language of India.^[6]

Semantic evolution

After 1492 the word was used for the Spanish Indies of America.^[2][7] In 1537 a letter from Cartagena speaks of the maestres e indianos who sail there, and in 1552 a text from Mexico City of the two commonwealths, the Spanish and the indiana.^[7] Las Casas's Brevísima relación (1552) speaks of indianas gentes “the peoples of the Indies”.^[3] Autoridades defined the adjective as “belonging to the Indies”, and the noun as a person who has been in the Indies and returned to Spain, or someone very rich.^[8] Terreros explained that the natives of the Indies were called indios and those of Spanish birth or descent indianos, even if born there.^[4]

The Academy's 1817 dictionary also defined it as one who returns rich from the Indies, and recorded indiano de hilo negro “miser”.^[9] From 1884 the dictionary placed the native “of America, the West Indies” first and the East Indies second.^[10] In the Canary Islands, from the second half of the 18th century, an indiano is an emigrant who has come back from America, especially from Cuba or Venezuela.^[11][12] The feminine indiana is also a printed linen or cotton cloth.^[13]

Timeline

• 1230–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre, DEMel's first record.^[5]
• 1250–1279 – the Lapidario names the stone indiana of the islands of India.^[6]
• 1272–1275 – the General estoria has jndianos for the people of India.^[6]
• 1537 – the first record from the Americas, in a letter from Cartagena.^[7]
• 1552 – Las Casas writes of indianas gentes.^[3]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades records the noun for a person who has returned from the Indies.^[8]
• 1750–1800 – first record of the Canarian sense of the returned emigrant.^[11]
• 1817 – the Academy records indiano de hilo negro “miser”.^[9]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary refers the word first to America.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Born in Spanish America but not of indigenous descent; also as a noun.^[13][10]
2. Of or relating to the West Indies, the Spanish colonies in America, or to the indianos: los puertos indianos del Caribe.^[13][1][14]
3. Of or relating to the East Indies.^[13][1]

Noun

1. A Spaniard who emigrated to America to seek his fortune and came back rich: Su bisabuelo fue un indiano que volvió de Cuba con dinero.^[13][1][14]
2. (Canary Islands) A Canarian emigrant who has come back from America.^[12][11][1]
3. (feminine, indiana) A linen or cotton cloth, or a mixture of both, printed on one side.^[13]
4. indiano de hilo negro (colloquial, dated): a miser.^[13]

Related words

• indio
• Medieval Latin indianus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 379
3. ^ a b c Grupo IATEXT, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, AMERLEX: corpus of americanisms in early texts on the Americas (online database), p. s.v. indiano
4. ^ a b Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 2, 340
5. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. indiano
6. ^ a b c d Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. indiano
7. ^ a b c Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. indiano
8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 250
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 490
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 592
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. indiano
12. ^ a b Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. indiano
13. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. indiano
14. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. indiano